Daily Worship

Whose Land is it anyway?

Andy Campbell October 15, 2016 0 0

Deuteronomy 7

Deuteronomy 7

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you.

 

Psalm 24

1The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.

The world, and all who live in it

For he founded it upon the seas

And established it on the waters

    

Matthew 6

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust detroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.

The land into which God’s people came was not empty.  It was inhabited. It was the home of many tribes, and we only ever hear the account from the Hebrews’ point of view.   Land ownership and exchange has never been an easy topic in Israel/Palestine or Scotland; not in years gone by, and not now !  Perhaps we should pray more about it than we normally do.

 

 

 

The land is in our blood,  and we have spilt much blood over land, Lord!

In our heads, land is not just about rock and soil, it is held close to our heart.

It is less about territory and more about our history, heritage, culture and values.

As I survey the houses and gardens, the fields and estates, each fenced in and marked clearly on maps I find myself asking:

“Whose land is it anyway?” 

Can it really be owned by one person, or a company, or a nation.

 

Oh God !  I think we set too much store in what we claim to own, 

especially when Jesus says so clearly, we should store up our treasures in heaven.

May I mark my days not by what I have, but what I have to share -

Let me tell people not where I am from, but where my destiny lies.

 

Remind me that I am but a steward of the land, for a while, and only a while,

and must pass it into the care of others who come after me, to steward as best they can.

 

Amen